


Tea Shop Not-AU

by aeternamente



Series: Coffee, Tea, and You and Me [2]
Category: Kissing in the Rain (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, Tea Shop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-09
Updated: 2014-08-04
Packaged: 2018-01-24 03:37:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1590275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aeternamente/pseuds/aeternamente
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>New series, new hot beverage! I'll be writing a chapter for every episode of <em>Kissing in the Rain: Audrey and Henry</em> featuring Audrey and Henry and a tea shop. Uncanonized fic marked as "AU."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

At first, they were going to go to this coffee place that James and Lily really liked, but Audrey had been there before, and it was  _nice_  and everything, but it had a pretty meager selection of bagged teas, and Audrey was a loose-leaf girl. And since this outing was about Audrey snagging the part of Lenore (“Like I knew you would,” James had gloated), she decided she had dibs on the venue and dragged him to this awesome place she’d just discovered called the Nightingale.

The Nightingale had those fancy tea infusers that you set on top of your cup when they’re done brewing, and all the tea just filtered out through the bottom. The barista always had to ask before giving it to you if you “knew how these things worked” and Audrey derived a great deal of pride from smiling and saying, “I got this.”

(She did have one of those infusers at home, but the hinge on the lid had broken pretty early on, so…  _meh_. She usually just used her basket infuser instead.)

"How  _do_  these things work?” James asked, holding the infuser up to eye level and lifting a finger to poke the bottom of it.

Audrey batted his hand down. “ _Don’t_  do that.” He would have tripped the valve and spilled tea all over the table. Ugh. Brothers. “You just wait a few minutes for it to steep, then put it on top of your cup and it all pours in.”

"Do you think it’s steeped enough now? It looks pretty brownish."

"For you? Probably. I like it super strong, so I’m gonna let it brew some more."

Once they’d successfully transferred the tea from infuser to cup, James proposed a toast:

"To  _The Lady-Ghost of Salem_  and its inevitable success!”

"Cheers!"

They clinked and drank. Audrey had gotten a Vanilla Earl Grey, which was just perfection with a splash of milk. She was in the middle of savoring it when a familiar form entered through the front door.

Tall. Well built. Dark curly hair. Stupidly charming smile, which he stupidly used to great effect when he noticed her immediately upon closing the door behind him.

She swallowed her tea and realized she was staring. She glanced at James who was looking back and forth between Audrey and the approaching Henry with an expression something like amusement with a hint of protective older brother.

Audrey blushed.  _Why was she blushing? No. Blushing not allowed._

"Audrey! So nice to see you again!"

"Uhhh… yeah! Yeah, you too." There was something breathy in her voice that made her wince.

Awkward pause. Oh! She should probably introduce her brother. ”Uhmm this—this is—”

"The Great Mr. Poe! Of course. Pleasure to meet you, sir."

James nodded and shook Henry’s hand. Did Henry just say  _sir_? That was so dorky. Why was it so cute?

"James this is—this is Henry, he’s going to be playing John Proctor."

"Looking forward to it," Henry added.

"I’m sure you are." James was smiling politely, but Audrey knew too well the teasing dance behind his eyes.

"Well, I’ll just…" Henry gestured toward the counter, then followed his gesture to go place his order.

James turned his eyes toward Audrey as Henry went. “ _Well_ …” he said, raising his eyebrows.

“ _Don’t you say a word_ ,” Audrey hissed back.


	2. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Dog Ownership

The nice thing about having a dog is that it gives you an excuse for casually walking by a tea shop in your neighborhood that you know is frequented by a certain co-star of yours with dark hair that has subtle strands of red in it that you only notice in a moonlit scene in which it is your job to deliver the words of what might be the most iconic literary love letter of all time. (You may envy Captain Wentworth the ability to express himself with words like that. You’re the guy who calls your eyes “these guys.”)

The annoying thing about having a dog is that when you do see her sitting at a table by the window, sipping tea and reviewing a script, said dog prevents you from going in to talk to her.

She looks up.

You smile and wave.

So does she.

You’d like to pause here a little longer (maybe forever?) just watching the way the little spirals of hair that escape her ponytail are framing her face, but Cecily is pulling at her leash.

You smile at her again and continue walking, trying to convince yourself that you really do love your dog.


	3. Something Stronger

Audrey went for the comfort drink today: a vanilla almond chai latte. It was more expensive than a normal cup of tea, but they made it with enough ginger to tingle on your tongue for hours after. The way chai should be.

And today? She needed it.

She just kept replaying those two lines of their conversation in her head:

_"I don’t know if anybody’s that special."_

_"You’re probably right."_

Her own words were embarrassing enough. They were a ploy. A shameless and obvious ploy. She might as well have written “TELL ME I’M SPECIAL” in lipstick on her forehead (though Audrey was pretty sure he’d find a way to misinterpret it even if she did write “TELL ME I’M SPECIAL” in lipstick on her forehead).

And yeah, maybe it’s a bit much to go fishing for a compliment the size of  _you’re so amazing I’d go all Jay Gatsby on you_ , but still. His response stung—it punctured and let all of the air out of that place inside her where she’d been harboring that little pocket of hope.

_Time to let go of that._

As it turned out, perhaps extra spicy chai wasn’t the best choice for comfort tea in this situation. The ginger was making her lips tingle, and that was making her remember… oh dear goodness, that  _one take_. She’d known it would be difficult trying to keep him at arm’s length when it was her job to kiss him. Repeatedly. Even more difficult when he just happens to be someone she  _really_  likes to kiss. But then when he kisses her like he did in that  _one take_ , well her brain just goes fuzzy and she’s not really in control of her actions anymore…

She heaved a sigh and took another sip and let her gaze wander out the window—

—and immediately felt a jolt like a punch to the stomach because there he was, across the street, walking his dogs. She’s seen him walk past with his dogs… well not  _terribly_  often (this is the fourth time altogether—and it’s really pathetic that she knows this off the top of her head), but enough for Audrey to say that he’s been in the habit of walking by on  _this_  side of the street, right past her window. The difference feels significant, and she’s torn between sinking even deeper into disappointment than she already was, and the urgent need to just keep staring at him, so as not to lose a single moment of the sight of him.

One of his dogs—the energetic, chocolate-colored one, who always loved to scurry around in every direction at once—found herself stuck, as she’d gotten her leash wound around a sign post. Henry laughed and stooped to extricate the leash, giving the dog a fond scratch behind the ears before continuing on.

Audrey was so caught up in how sweet Henry was with his dogs that it wasn’t until he was out of sight that she realized—he hadn’t looked toward the Nightingale, not once. He hadn’t seen her.

She lifted her cup to drink more chai, but there was no more.

 _Damn it_.

(Things must be really bad. She was swearing for real.)

She briefly considered buying another chai, but then thought better of it—tea was a great comfort drink, but this situation called for something stronger.


	4. Research (AU)

"You were right, this place is delightful!"

Audrey smiled and closed her laptop as Dr. Carolyn Harris (aka Henry’s mom—but Audrey was trying not to think about that) sat down across from her, setting down a mug and a fancy infuser full of brewing tea.

"Yes, I firmly believe that every tea lover in LA should know about the Nightingale."

"And with good reason. I hope I wasn’t interrupting anything important?" She gestured at Audrey’s laptop.

Audrey waved a hand. “Oh, it’s nothing. People don’t think I can pull off Wonder Woman.” She rolled her eyes, trying to achieve Lily-levels of cool dismissive unconcern.

"Then prove them wrong," Carolyn said with a kind smile that communicated her confidence that Audrey was fully capable of doing just that. "Oh, and speaking of—" She pulled two books out of her bag. "—I brought you these. For research."

Audrey accepted the books and scanned their spines. “Greek mythology…”

"Always important to know your roots."

"Thank you," Audrey set the books and her laptop aside. "These will be really useful!"

“ _Now,_ " Carolyn said with a slightly worrisome sparkle in her eyes. "I hate to be a prying mother, but I have to ask—did Henry  _actually_  ask you out? He said he would.”

Audrey blushed and stuttered. “Well he—I mean—not—he didn’t—not  _exactly_  but—”

"What did he  _say_  though?” Carolyn arched an eyebrow.

"He—" Audrey really didn’t want to think about how deeply red her face was at this point. "—he asked if we could… hang out after the wrap."

Carolyn sighed. “I suppose that’s the best I’ve any right to hope for.”

"Can we please talk about something else?"

"Of course, dear." She smiled sympathetically. Then she tapped the cover of one of the books she’d brought (still sitting at the edge of the table against the wall). "Now, one interesting thing you might not have known about the Amazons…"


	5. Lingering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yulin made this final Tea Shop Not-AU easy for me—she put it right in [her fic](http://audreyandhenrykitr.tumblr.com/post/88424163776/kissing-in-the-rain-words)!

Henry had long since finished his tea latte. Audrey had gotten a refill on hot water, and was nearing the end of her second cup, musing regretfully that the her tea leaves probably wouldn’t stand up to a third steeping.

Henry needed to walk the dogs.

It had been so nice, just sitting and talking. No director calling for them to start the next take. No makeup artist or wardrobe assistant rushing in to touch them up or adjust a tie. No fake rain, no costumes, nobody watching, no reasons to be nervous.

But it was starting to feel like the end. Their topics of conversation were starting to get shorter. Small pauses started creeping in as they tried to come up with new things to say…

"So what got you into liking tea so much?" he asked. They had just finished talking about his work at the animal shelter, and this was the first thing that came to mind as a new topic. He knew he was grasping, but he didn’t want this to end just yet.

Audrey laughed. Her characteristic little upward-inflected “ha-ha!” He really liked the way she laughed. “I wish I had an interesting story about that. I think it’s just that I never really got used to the taste of coffee, so I just went with tea instead.” She shrugged and smiled.

"Yeah, I guess I learned to like coffee in college—"

"That’s what  _everyone_  said would happen to me. ‘Oh, once you have to pull an all-nighter to write a paper, you’ll end up drinking coffee like everyone else.’” Audrey rolled her eyes. “Just never happened. But I guess by then I was pretty firm in my belief that tea is really the superior hot beverage.”

They laughed. Henry was momentarily tempted to say something along the lines of  _my mother would like you,_  because his mother often did make pronouncements like that about the superiority of tea. But then he figured that might be a bit much.

And he really did need to walk the dogs.

"Hey, listen," he forced himself to say. "This has been great, but I should get back to my dogs. It’s time for their walk." (Past time, actually.)

Audrey nodded and gathered her dishes. “Of course. Walk time is sacred.”

They deposited their used dishes in the designated basin. “But don’t forget,” she as they walked companionably toward the door. “Buffy. My place. Friday night.”

Henry grinned. “Wouldn’t miss it.”

They were lingering outside the door at this point. He wondered briefly if this might be a good moment to kiss her. But then he wasn’t sure if this outing had really qualified as a  _date_ , or if she was the kind of person who cared about PDA…

They both seemed to realize at the same time that they hadn’t been talking for several moments. They laughed and looked down.

"I’ll… see you later then," she said, looking up again. He thought there was something shy and earnest in the way she looked at him.

"Yeah," he said. "Yeah, it was really nice seeing you."

"You too," she said, and turned away toward her car.

He watched her walk away.

He wished he could have kissed her.

But there would be other chances.


End file.
